Wow that is not ok. Unfortunately, if they are ignorant enough to do that, they may not be reasonable when approached, no matter how civilly. I would do nothing unless it evolves from 1 to 2 or ruins your lawn.

Super weird and not okay. It's one thing to be walking your dog and he slips one out. It's another thing entirely to leash up just to take the dog to a neighbor's yard to pee. That's plain rude!

I think I would start mild, with an anti pee sign in the lawn. There's a ton available and some might almost be considered cute. If your HOA doesn't allow that, I don't know...

Dog pee doesn't always damage grass so if that is your ONLY concern, you might not get spots. I don't know the link between spots and pee and how much is dose dependent or what...

And it's pretty sad that the dogs never get out. Is it possible the owner was try to turn over a new leaf and walk the poor things but they are so darned excited about the world that they can't hold it a second longer?

Are there any community regulations concerning pets? Our HOA rules state that pets may only relieve themselves in the owner's yard or in the street between the curbs - which means not in the grass strip between the sidewalk and the street - and the owner must dispose of it at home. They are permitted to walk on the sidewalk but the dog is not allowed to wander into the yards. Nearly everyone complies. When we first moved in I noticed the woman who lived across the street and 2 houses up walk her dog diagonally across the street to my yard where it relieved himself. I was stunned and thought perhaps it was a fluke. Then I realized that she did it every morning. After the third or forth third time I went out and as she was walking away I simply said that I didn't want her dog doing its business in my yard. She replied OK and after than I noticed that she simply passed my house and used my next door neighbors yard.

I would not like that at all.

But, I have to ask. Is it only a certain type of grass that turns brown? Brown spotted grass doesn’t seem to be a problem in these parts. Lots of dogs and dog walkers. Our lab mostly used our backyard, never had a spot problem on our grass.

When we had small children I asked dog walking people not to let their dogs use our yard because I didn’t want kids playing on areas with dog p. I got mostly an ”ok” and they moved on.

I wonder if they are having their backyard treated and it is off-limits for dogs for a day? Has it happened again?

I agree that it is not OK .. urine, especially from a female dog, will brown your grass. I would speak to them (nicely of course) vs putting up a sign. I don't like the look or tone of the signs and I don't think it is a good idea to start passive communications with a next door neighbor.

I would wonder about the change in pattern.. and am surprised that there are no walks. Maybe they have mobility issues (some are not obvious-- like my issues with depth perception) but that wouldn't explain why they use YOUR front yard vs theirs lol. That's just wrong! I don't even get why they'd be using the front yard (yours or theirs) vs the back.. unless maybe there are stairs or some other issue that makes the backyard problematic? No matter .. not your problem.

maddielee, we are in a dry area so I think the dog urine doesn't get diluted like it might in other areas. Also, I think some dogs might have more potent urine than others. Our neighbor's dog likes a particular area in the corner of our front yard. If we aren't careful, it quickly gets filled up with burn spots.

The association must have had prior experience with these kinds of complaints, could you contact them not making a formal complaint and see how past resolutions have been accomplished?

Also, I have in the past made the following suggestion for cat in the garden problems which is to buy a motion activated sprinkler which hooks up to a hose (available cheap on Amazon) which can actually be set for how far the sprinkler goes (so it doesn't cross the property line). And you can always also get a timer to attach to the spigot to time when you want the sprinkler to be active.

I would definitely ask them to stop. Nicely.

My ds was dog watching in the spring and brought the dog for the day to our house. The dog peed several times in our fenced side yard and every spot turned brown. We had to remove the dead grass and reseed. I mentioned it to friends who have a dog. They give their dog a supplement in his food that neutralizes the acid in pee so they don't get brown spots in their lawn.

Not OK. YOU don't own a dog. I'd start by putting up these little signs. The sprinkler idea is brilliant!

Apparently we have the kind of grass that turns brown as another neighbor's dogs use the front yard and it's an eyesore come spring. Front yard, back yard - same grass. We cannot put signs in our yard or keep a sprinkler out there - against the rules which is fine by me. Having been on the committee that updated the rules a couple years ago we specifically stated that if you're having a problem with your neighbor the first step is for you to contact them to discuss your concern rather than turfing it off to the HOA board to handle - good policy in my mind. We don't have specific rules about where your dog does his business and this topic never came up as it's probably never been a problem.

I've seen the situation happen twice on two different days. Could be occurring more often and I don't happen to be looking out the window at the time. For the moment I think I will just wait and see if see it happens again and will then walk out my front door and ask what's up. I am thinking about the cayenne pepper as big dog did use the same spot twice and lots of other people walk their dogs down our street. They all seem to go on the other side though in an open area that isn't right in someone's front yard.

This isn't nearly as bad as what used to happen at our previous lake home. Up there the neighbors let their dogs run loose. A new neighbor moved in and his dogs seemed to use our yard exclusively as their dumping ground. I guess if you have dogs you're careful not to walk in the dogsh!t in your yard but if you don't have them you aren't expecting it. 😝

My DH loves a nice grassy front lawn and he works hard at it. Our dog goes in our backyard or bushes on the side of the house.

If I spot someone letting their dog go on my yard I say, please don't go there. My husband works very hard trying to keep our lawn nice.

My neighborhood is such that there are blocks of marshland and many corners that aren't someone’s lawn. Lots of choices or let your dog go on YOUR own front lawn.

People are fine when I say it in a quirky way rather than sounding annoyed.

Almost as if WE are eccentric.

That is incredibly rude dog owner behavior. I'm not sure what to recommend since I suspect the neighbor is a jerk. You could try either the sign or a conversation, but I wouldn't be surprised if the neighbor ignores you and continues the behavior. I'm really sorry you have to deal with this.

I had a neighbor who would let their dog off leash to poop on neighbor's lawns instead of in their fenced back yard and would not pick it up. One day I was out weeding my front yard and the dog came strolling over illegally off leash while the owner watched. I told the dog "no" and shooed it off my lawn. The neighbor got angry with me and started yelling at me.

Many dogs, like mine, mark territory while walking. I always try to get her to pee and poop in my yard before leaving, but even when she shouldn't have a full bladder, she will pee a little tiny amount when I take her running and walking to mark her territory in the neighborhood. I haven't seen any brown spots from that and my back yard does get some brown spots, but I think those are mostly when she's emptying her full bladder in the morning. So I guess my point is that if the dogs are just peeing a little bit on a normal walk I wouldn't worry too much, but if the neighbor is taking the dogs out for their morning bathroom break on your lawn, unfortunately you could end up with spots.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

And can you water in the affected spots, so they don't burn?

Since you can't put up a sign, I guess you'll have to talk to them. 😬

But wait a few days and see if it continues.

I can see why the HOA doesn't allow those signs, they're tacky and a lot of dog owners ignore them anyway. I'm glad to see you are willing to wait to see if it happens one more time, and then have a polite chat with him about it. If he's compliant, bring over brownies or some other little gift to gloss over any hard feelings.

I'm not thrilled about the cayenne pepper idea -- it could harm birds. (They can eat spicy food, but cayenne dust might hurt their eyes as they hunt and peck in the grass.) It would hurt squirrels too (I love squirrels so....).

It hurts the dogs too, and it is not really their fault. I wonder too how many times they would have to have their mouth burned before making the association between pain and grass.

Eld's approach is excellent. It's not about the fact that you have a right to be annoyed, its about what will result in the best outcome. Misdirection, it's-not-you-it's-me. Something like "oh hey, hubby is a little fanatical about the grass (eye roll), could you please make sure your dog stays off it?"

Those little signs are a nightmare for lawn mowers.

Our next door neighbor has two nice dogs - one big, one small. They are house dogs - never taken for a walk or outside except to do their business in the yard.

I feel bad that two nice dogs, esp. a big one, are never taken for walks or go outside. What kind of life is that?

I don't have my own dog, but I have a wonderful grand dog who often stays with me. He's 90 lbs. and we take 4 walks a day, two extended. I don't let him pee on my neighbors' property. But he wants to, so it takes some intentional redirection on my part to prevent that from happening.

Oops - did not see that signs are disallowed - too bad!

My sister and BIL have one of these cast metal figures in white & red on the edge of their front yard next to the sidewalk - It's small and discreet and I don't think it's in the way of any mowers or edgers:

^^^^^I would rather see brown spots then this.

Yeah, I feel really sorry for the dogs. When I see people walking their dogs they all seem so happy - the dogs that is. The other day I saw someone running across my back yard - that never happens - so I went to see what was up. Apparently some younger people were dog sitting next door and had the dogs out in the yard off leash. The big guy had taken off running down the yards - not sure how far - but I finally saw the kid dragging him back by the collar and yelling to the other one to get his leash. I could have cried it made me so sad.

I have noticed the neighbor waters the pee spots in his back yard but I'm not sure it helps. We love dogs as much as cats but we know our lifestyle is not conducive to being good dog owners so there is no way in he!! I'm going to tend to someone else's dog spots.

My neighbor was walking his dog into the middle of my lawn at night. Guess he didnt know that my doorbell cam was recording him. One time I flicked the light on and it was funny to watch him jump. I was hoping that would be enough to discourage him, but he kept it up. I sent a friendly email asking him to please stay on the sidewalk. Now his wife makes a big deal out of walking the dog on the other side of the street. Works for me.

But yes, you should say something. I know its hard when you want to maintain friendly relations with the neighbors, but they are not being fair to you.

@dedtired that's so odd when people do that. I keep my dog on a very short leash and try to keep her to the edges of the lawn or if I can see she needs to do business, I try to move her to the parking strip if I can. I always pick up after my dog, but I still try to minimize the impact or annoyance to people. But really, there are so many rude dog owners. I see so much dog waste just left on people's lawns when I'm out walking and even worse on trails. Dogs will always go to the bathroom when out on walks and runs. It's just what happens. But owners should do everything they can to minimize the impact on other people's property.

They sell "Scram". I had this problem at the last house....and I sprinkled a half a can down along the street side flower garden.....IT WORKED!

Ong, using cayenne pepper where an animal can inhale it or get it in its eyes is INHUMANE! Can you imagine how awful it would be to be unable to flush the burn with water? I truly can’t bejieve anyone would do that to an animal. These dogs are on leashes under the control of their owner. It is not the dogs who are the problem. Just ask the owner to keep them off your lawn!

If you need a deterrent so the dogs will refuse to be led to your yard, there must be humane products that do that. Plants or scents they dislike. I’m not fond of dogs but would never be so cruel as this suggestion.

And then there are always motion activated water sprayers you can hook up.

The challenge is that some people are clueless, and some people are callous, and a whole lot of other people literally just don't care how their behavior impacts other people.

I 100% understand why it bothers you. Whether I would say something depends on how I think they would react. Getting into a fight with the neighbors over this wouldn't be worth it to me. I understand others disagree and that's fine too. I'm just saying, for me, I would rather stay on good terms with neighbors than risk a fight over brown spots on my lawn. However I am not a lawn fanatic. As long as mine is sort of green and not unruly, I don't care. (I don't have irrigation and over the summer months there is often a whole lot of brown on mine no matter what anyway....)

It would be a much nicer universe if everyone minded their manners and did their best not to intrude on other people's property. Since that doesn't seem to be the direction we are headed in.....I try to pick my battles. At a former house the neighbor kids often used to use my driveway as part of their play area - which wouldn't have bothered me, except they were often playing with balls, and threw rocks and sticks, and when they whacked my car they didn't care. And they were screamers too, which added a nice touch. Their parents were loud and self-absorbed (shocking I know!) ...and I just knew trying to have a discussion would not yield the desired outcome. Risking a battle with loud semi-aggressive people literally wasn't worth it to me. Other people bristle at that suggestion and say you have to push back, give them an inch and they'll take a mile....shrug.

We all have to decide the risk/benefits of doing, or NOT doing, actions based on what we all value most.

But Ally, does one really have a good relationship with a neighbor who disrespects your propery by letting their dogs use your yard? Not in my world, if I cared that they might be ruining/harming my property. .

The more I think about this, I keep wondering why the owners would be using your yard to take their dog to go to the bathroom if they have their own yard space that they typically use. Is it possible they recently sprayed or applied chemicals that they are temporarily trying to protect their dogs against? When we fertilize we try to minimize the time our dog spends on our lawn (though not at the expense of our neighbors). You could give it a little more time to see if they continue the behavior before talking to them.

I do want to second the concerns about anything like cayenne that could harm the dogs. They are innocent creatures just doing their business wherever the owners bring them.

Well, good question Olychick. To me "good relationship" is a continuum - not black and white. Having a dog use my yard to pee isn't even worth risking it. It actually happens all the time around my development- we have a lot of dog walkers and we all have small lots. If it was fecal matter that wasn't picked up then yes - I would absolutely say something about that.

I guess poo is the line for me. If pee is the line for you, then so be it.

I suspect this might be somewhat neighborhood dependent too. When you're all crammed in together on smaller lots sometimes other people do things you wish they wouldn't. Whether it's neighborhood kids, or dogs, or roaming cats killing birds and pooping in the flower beds, or loud music, parking on the street in front of the wrong house, where someone sets their trash can, revving their car or motorcycle engine, starting the lawn mower at 7 am - the list of potential offenses is endless. I tend to err on the side of letting it go if I can.

Ally, I wish I could be more like you! Just reading your list of challenges in a small lot neighborhood gave me anxiety and reminded me why I need a diiferent type of neighborhood.

Funny thing happened tonight. We pulled out of the garage just as Mr. Nextdoor was about to come on over with the dogs. He stopped short when he saw us and his big dog proceeded to pee in his own yard. Maybe he'll stay over there? If not I've decided what I'm going to say if I see him in our yard again. I'm going to ask if the dogs needed a change of scenery as I'd always seen them doing their business only in their back yard - never in my front yard. Then I'll see what he has to say.

Put out a few lawn chemical warning signs/flags in the yard near the street. That should work.

3Katz, what you saw proves he knows it's not right. He’s hoping you think it's another dog in the neighborhood.

I'm afraid to see the conditioner of backyard. Maybe that why he’s moving to the front.

3Katz, good suggestions offered. I’d tend to avoid saying anything for a while, especially since the owner saw you noticed him. The owners sound like self absorbed, rude blockheads, ans as Mnt and others have pointed out, they may be ignorant and unreasonable. If I were to say something, I would be direct, I would not count in them taking a hint. But the idea of saying that ytour DH is bvery particular and works hard to keep his lawn pretty (as described in a post above) is good.

I would not use cayenne or any other substance, or notes or signs.

If things got bad, your could borrow someone’s huge horse for a day and walk him over to do his business on the obtuse neighbor’s lawn. :::Kidding:::

I do understand your desire for a nice lawn, but don’t understand why anyone would think making an animal suffer with cayenne in their nose, mouth or eyes is an acceptable way to achieve it. Not only the offending dogs, but cats, squirrels and others passing through are at risk. They get it on their paws then lick it off.. Try a little cayenne in your eye and see if you stiill feel it’s ok. Oh, and no using your opposable thimbs to rinse it out! There are humane alternatives.

Dee, Nicole posted a humane product upthread. Might it be worth a try instead of pepper?

I just don't think burning dogs mouths with cayenne is OK. It could get into their eyes too. I agree with trying to find other solutions.

I think you are probably overestimating dogs intelligence. Would you think a toddler would understand it, that there is a burning substance only in one area? Maybe your own dogs would figure it out, similar to the aversion training with an invisible fence - but not random dogs walking by. My own dog burned his tongue trying to lick something coming out of the oven, and I still have to watch him in similar circumstances anyway. They don't generalize well.

My hunch is your dog walking neighbors have shared the story and it is the humans avoiding the area. I know my fellow dog walkers pretty well and we share stories.

I feel so bad for any innocent animal - domesticated or wild - who gets pepper in their eyes. Can't you try something more humane and see if it works?

Potty Rocks. Buy some for your neighbors' dogs. Ask them to pee on the brown spots on your lawn.

Yes, this was in my FB feed this morning.